Active Schools Midlothian celebrated Active Girls and Scottish Women & Girls in Sport week during October.
During the month of October Midlothian Active Schools celebrated Active Girls and Scottish Women & Girls in Sport week. This was a chance to showcase the work carried out by our Fit for Girls Committee, plan and deliver Active Girls events to encourage and increase girl’s participation and share experiences and work with local and external partners.
Fit for Girls
The Fit for Girls programme is a joint initiative between Sport Scotland and Youth Sport Trust with main aims to bring about sustainable change in schools and build a positive future for girls’ participation in lifelong physical activity.
Active Schools have worked with secondary schools to recruit and train a Midlothian Fit for Girls Committee in delivering interactive workshops for disengaged girls within their schools. The committee have managed to deliver four workshops and surveys across five high schools, enabling 80 disengaged girls to share their opinions and views on girl’s participation within school settings. Using this method of interactive consultation, all girls were able to identify common barriers to school sport participation while feeling unjudged, valued and heard.
By attending meetings and delivering workshops, the FFG committee have established identity amongst schools, built confidence and rapport when working with each other and have improved their core leadership skills.
Ministerial Visit
Earlier this month, Maree Todd, Minister for Public Health, Women’s health & sport was invited to Midlothian as part of Scottish Women & Girl’s in sport week. This was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate all the positive work established by FFG’s committee and Young Sport Ambassadors.
The minister was given a tour of Newbattle High School then presented with some targeted physical activity led by some of the schools established young leaders. FFG’s committee members Ellie and Brooke, who are also pupils & Young Ambassadors at Newbattle High were responsible for leading the minister and answering any questions she had.
A portion of the morning was devoted to the FFG’s group who engaged in their own workshop, discussing their experiences in connecting with disengaged girls. The aim of the workshop was to share ideas and potential solutions in addressing some of the barriers that girls face within sport.
Using the interactive workshop resources, the committee answered questions and discussed points with the minister as she retold some of her own experiences while listening to ongoing discussions. This was a great opportunity for the committee to not only talk with the minister but learn of key themes which have occurred in other areas.
The experience encapsulated the positive influence of all the young leaders, Young Sport Ambassadors and FFG’s committee promoting a sense of community within schools and school sport.
Active Girls Day Events
To promote and showcase girls sport participation, Midlothian secondary schools celebrate Active Girls Day. Each individual school comes together to discuss, plan and organise an event which includes girls taking part in sport.
This year, in Lasswade High School, Young Ambassadors Cara, Shannon, Brooke & Riley worked with the school sport council to host two mass Club-Exercise events. The Club-Exercise event is based on fun/dance style activities and is designed to be inclusive whereby the hall is darkened for glow lighting, making individuals feel at east while taking part. Across the two events, over 300 hundred girls took part which meant for a hugely successful event, further promoting girls participation within the school.
Newbattle High School hosted the ministerial visit as part of Scottish Women & Girls in Sport week and showcased their popular girls cheerleading sessions. Newbattle YA’s Ellie & Brooke also took Active Girls month as a great opportunity to promote the girls clubs and extra-curricular opportunities they have on offer. It was a great way to ensure all the new S1’s are aware of all the school has to offer.
Dalkeith High School girls participated in 4 Health and Wellbeing sessions that took place after school in the Fitness Suite. The sessions included a mixture of high intensity circuits, mindfulness, yoga and a lower body session. All of the girls were highly motivated and enjoyed the sessions, a great way for the girls to experience physical activity & positive mental well-being in a non-competive enviroment.
Other schools offered girls after school taster sessions and worked with local clubs and partner to highlight girls sport opportunities on offer across Midlothian. We look forward to seeing the impact of all the work above and hope to see an overall increase in girls participating & enjoying physical activity in the future months.
